All Star Sports or Preferred room at Pop?

[Disneyland1084]

Which would you chose and why? I first went to WDW in 2017 and loved All Star Sports. I haven't been back, but am planning a trip there in 2026. Assuming I'll stay 2 weeks again, I only put in a price for DS and I, assuming my girls won't come,(they'll be 20 and 16 by then, and they're already tired of Disney) and secretly hoping DH doesn't come (don't shame me please, he's not really into Disney and spends a lot of time at the hotel whenever we go to DL) for a 2 week stay, 10 day park hopper with waterparks. It would cost over 1,200 more to stay in a preferred room at Pop vs. a standard room at All Star Sports. I'd love to experience Pop, and said in a different thread how I really love that all the bathrooms have a detachable shower head. But I'm not really sure if I want to pay $1,200 extra for that luxury. I put in 2025 prices, before the summer discounts, so I know all prices listed are ball park figures for what I'll be spending in 2026. I like how All Star Sports is small. My personal opinion, but I think it's small enough that a preferred room isn't needed.

 

[DoryGirl1963]

All Star Sports for the win ! We've stayed at both but except for the Skyliner - which IS definitely awesome excepting bad weather closures - we both prefer Sports in every way over Pop.

& agree - even the furthest Standard room at Sports isn't far from the lobby & food court & buses.

 

[HopperFan]

I LOVE POP, over 40 stays but they have priced me out so we now stay at Sports and I do love it there. It is a fairly small footprint, think the main pool is way better than any value (except AoA), have always had great bus service and overall stays. That $1200 could pay for lots of good eats!!!

I just want to say that getting Preferred at POP does not guarantee a good room. We usually stayed Standard and requested 50's facing the lake. Beautiful quiet area. One trip we arrived and they were so proud they had bumped me up to Preferred. It was bad. We had a room literally feet from the bell hop service area and it was nonstop noise! In essence we were downgraded ... badly. I'd never pay extra for preferred there, but would put in request for lake view.

 

[michael92]

For me it's pop century. First the skyliner opens up disney world quite a bit. You can go to epcot and Hollywood studios. You can go to caribbean beach resort, riviera resort, all the epcot resorts and the boardwalk which is enjoyable at night. Second the food court is much better. Also sometimes during the day all stars share a bus.

 

[Disneyland1084]

For me it's pop century. First the skyliner opens up disney world quite a bit. You can go to epcot and Hollywood studios. You can go to caribbean beach resort, riviera resort, all the epcot resorts and the boardwalk which is enjoyable at night. Second the food court is much better. Also sometimes during the day all stars share a bus.

That's great you love Pop Century. I stayed at All Star Sports for two weeks in June of 2017. Aside from sharing a bus every time we went to the water parks, we only shared a bus ONE time for Magic Kingdom. And personally I don't see how All Stars sharing a bus is any different than the moderate resorts who pick up people from multiple bus stops all around the resort, lol.

 

[Mle8308]

Why not Pop standard room? Pop isn't as spread out as the All Stars are and you have the Skyliner.

 

[HopperFan]

For me it's pop century. First the skyliner opens up disney world quite a bit. You can go to epcot and Hollywood studios. You can go to caribbean beach resort, riviera resort, all the epcot resorts and the boardwalk which is enjoyable at night. Second the food court is much better.

Disney has basically redesigned all the value food court menus to be the same. You won't find much, if anything different in the POP and Sports menus. I just pulled them up and same basic offerings.

Plus for Sports is the refillable drink machines are accessible 24 hours a day while the POP ones are only open when the food court is. And I think that goes for the toasters and microwaves too.

Also sometimes during the day all stars share a bus.

We don't travel during prime times and have never shared a bus with the others except for Disney Springs. Sometimes we are the only ones on the bus and they still didn't go to the other resorts.

Overall at Disney I don't decide based on transportation, I decide on the resort.

 

[Disneyland1084]

Why not Pop standard room? Pop isn't as spread out as the All Stars are and you have the Skyliner.

I've never stayed at Pop, but do know it's WAY bigger and more spread out than All Star Sports. If it were just me, I'd probably get a standard room at Pop, but I'd rather get a preferred room towards the front with my DS.

 

[Pinnochio]

For me it's pop century. First the skyliner opens up disney world quite a bit. You can go to epcot and Hollywood studios. You can go to caribbean beach resort, riviera resort, all the epcot resorts and the boardwalk which is enjoyable at night. Second the food court is much better. Also sometimes during the day all stars share a bus.

This

 

[Mle8308]

I've never stayed at Pop, but do know it's WAY bigger and more spread out than All Star Sports. If it were just me, I'd probably get a standard room at Pop, but I'd rather get a preferred room towards the front with my DS.

Interesting you say that, I think Sports is way more spread out than Pop. Pop may have more rooms (I am not sure if that is the case) but it's more compact. Depending on when you are going, Sports can be overrun with sports and cheerleading groups... doesn't happen as often at Pop. But if you like Sports and are comfortable booking there, do it! $1200 is a lot of Genie+ or whatever it will be called by then!

 

[brockash]

Which would you chose and why? I first went to WDW in 2017 and loved All Star Sports. I haven't been back, but am planning a trip there in 2026. Assuming I'll stay 2 weeks again, I only put in a price for DS and I, assuming my girls won't come,(they'll be 20 and 16 by then, and they're already tired of Disney) and secretly hoping DH doesn't come (don't shame me please, he's not really into Disney and spends a lot of time at the hotel whenever we go to DL) for a 2 week stay, 10 day park hopper with waterparks. It would cost over 1,200 more to stay in a preferred room at Pop vs. a standard room at All Star Sports. I'd love to experience Pop, and said in a different thread how I really love that all the bathrooms have a detachable shower head. But I'm not really sure if I want to pay $1,200 extra for that luxury. I put in 2025 prices, before the summer discounts, so I know all prices listed are ball park figures for what I'll be spending in 2026. I like how All Star Sports is small. My personal opinion, but I think it's small enough that a preferred room isn't needed.

If it's during rainier months; that would definitely take Pop out of the equation for us. We really do love the skyliner, but it is such a pain and a hassle when they shut it down (very frequent in summer/stormy months) To us, it's definitely not worth it then.

We actually prefer the theming at any of the All stars better than Pop. We do really like that Pop has the detachable shower head and love the skyliner, but even with all of that working in pristine condition I'm not sure it's worth $1200. The rooms are virtually identical.

One more plus for Sports - they still have the old resort tv channel. I know it sounds silly but Pop does not and it really is a part of our vacation

 

[WDW_Michael]

Id go All Star Sports for sure. 1) You've already stayed there & had a good time, so you know you enjoy the resort. 2) The amount of money you save is enough to cover your meals for your entire trip. 3) The 3 all star resorts are all so close together and share amenities, so you can walk over to the other all stars to use their pools or eat there just to mix it up and add variety. 4) Outside of the skyliner, Pop and All Stars are pretty dang similar. Rooms are the same, food court options are about the same, both have the oversized in your face theming (however i think All Stars theming is more Disney focused, which i personally prefer).

I know the 3 all star resorts are all usually priced the same or similar, so if you could I'd suggest staying at Movies or Music just to make it a little different from your previous trip.

 

[HopperFan]

Interesting you say that, I think Sports is way more spread out than Pop. Pop may have more rooms (I am not sure if that is the case) but it's more compact. Depending on when you are going, Sports can be overrun with sports and cheerleading groups... doesn't happen as often at Pop. But if you like Sports and are comfortable booking there, do it! $1200 is a lot of Genie+ or whatever it will be called by then!

Sports footprint is much smaller than POP. Their buildings are very tight and POP's are spread in a long ways design. That said I don't consider either one a size issue. No matter your room, the hub will always be an easy walk. POP is 2900 rooms to Sports 1900.

What might impact your stay is your particular building and/or groups staying. Some of my absolutely worse stays with groups were POP to the point security was called, I actually stopped staying there for awhile because of it ~ and made the front desk aware of the issues. Only AoA is immune from groups STAYING there but even going there to eat to get away from the teens ... we found they went there too. I've actually stayed at POP twice as part of a high school group (DS is a coach).

I was actually at Sports last year with the teen cheer groups. Zero issues and resort enforced quiet hours, with signs. We've even had noise at deluxe resorts.

BOTH POP & Sports are great resorts, There are no promises at either one of them, I would stay at either one of them. For me it would boil down to $1200 difference.

 

[bluezy]

I've never stayed at Pop, but do know it's WAY bigger and more spread out than All Star Sports. If it were just me, I'd probably get a standard room at Pop, but I'd rather get a preferred room towards the front with my DS.

If you do some quick measurements on Google Maps, you'll see that ASSports actually has a slightly larger footprint than Pop Century.

It seems like you've already made up your mind that you want to stay at ASSports (and that's ok! I get it, we have our favorite resort as well), but I'll add my 2 cents. I'd take Pop over any of the All Stars any day of the week. Like someone else mentioned, the Skyliner opens up so many other options for food and easily getting to other resorts in general (take the Skyliner to DHS and hop on a bus to any resort for a meal or just a visit...we've done that many times). We've been there in June twice since the Skyliner opened and in 16 days over 2 trips, the Skyliner was only down for weather once when it affected our travel. It was probably down other times, but it wasn't during the 15-20 minutes that we needed to use it those days. Being in a Skyliner cabin with just a few other people *and* being guaranteed a seat rather than possibly needing to stand is sooooo nice at park opening and closing. We now dread our AK & MK days because we have to take a bus. I agree that the All Star resorts possibly sharing a bus during the day is similar to the moderates having to make several stops throughout the resort. It's one of the reasons we will probably never stay at a Moderate resort -- between the numerous stops *and* not having dedicated park lines at the bus stops, it's not a situation we've enjoyed when visiting moderate resorts.

I would consider booking a standard room at Pop. You can still get a great location (and as previously noted, preferred rooms aren't always a great location). Our son and his family were at Pop 2 weeks ago in a standard room. They requested top floor, close to the Skyliner. They were put in Bldg 4 (60's section), 4th floor, facing the lake. It's a standard room but an awesome location -- close to *everything*. Our other son checked in at Pop 2 days later. He went to the front desk and asked if there were any rooms available that were close to son #1. They got put on the same wing, but the 2nd floor. We were also in that location for a previous trip and it really is an awesome location. There are a lot of *good* standard rooms at Pop. I would probably never pay for a preferred room there. The resort is not that huge.

But like I said, based on some of your comments, it seems like you've already decided on Sports -- and if you're not going to consider a standard room at Pop, I'd agree with the others who say to save the $1200 and use it for Genie+ or your food....or souvenirs. It seems like you enjoyed your stay at Sports, so I totally understand wanting to stay there again. And who knows, they might have removable shower head by the time you go!

 

[Bella Paige]

If you do some quick measurements on Google Maps, you'll see that ASSports actually has a slightly larger footprint than Pop Century.

All Star Sports covers 90 acres and has 1,926 rooms.

Pop Century covers 177 acres and has 2,880 rooms.

 

[traveler9]

I detest the Skyliner so I would pick Sports over Pop.

 

[bluezy]

All Star Sports covers 90 acres and has 1,926 rooms.

Pop Century covers 177 acres and has 2,880 rooms.

I'm sure that includes parking areas and Pop will have larger parking areas because of more parking spaces due to having more rooms (and that's probably why my measurements are different -- I was only quickly calculating the area of the actual buildings/walkways, not the parking areas). And the reason Pop has so many more rooms is because the buildings have 4 floors as opposed to 3 at All Stars. Both resorts have 10 buildings. The number of rooms doesn't have anything to do with the footprint of the resort (other than it's possible that the food court area is larger at Pop due to having more rooms/guests). Depending what building someone is in at Sports, it can still be a long walk to the main building and bus stops (and walking through the parking lot, across the road, and through the resort to the amenities at Music isn't any shorter) just like at Pop. Or someone could end up with a great room location at either resort and have a short walk to everything. I really don't care where the OP (or anyone) stays when they're at Disney. None of the value resorts are significantly bigger/smaller than the others but they are all significantly more compact than most DVC resorts. If someone thinks the Value resorts are spread out, they should go visit some DVC resorts and walk to the furthest rooms there. I'll take any room at any value resort over the hike we've had when going to Boardwalk and AKL villas -- both times the rooms were literally as far away from the bus stops/restaurants as you could possibly be and were longer walks than any value resort room location we've had.

 

[BorderTenny]

I would choose Pop over any All-Star just for the handheld in the shower. Skyliner is just icing on the cake.